My iPhone 4 and my daughter's iPhone 4

I synced my iPhone to my iTunes. I have lots of music, tons of contacts, photos, etc.

I thought it would be a smart thing to sync my daughters iPhone the same so we could share contacts, music, etc.

The problem now is that as she updates her iPhone with all those silly teenage apps, they are put on my iPhone. As she needs to update her apps or download new ones, it requires my password which I don't want to share with her.

How can she sync her phone to another computer with iTunes without losing everything? Is that possible? I know it will want to wipe her phone clean to set up an account with another iTunes, but we hate for her to lose all her apps and all the contacts she's typed in.

You can sync multiple iPods and/or iPhones with the same iTunes library on the same computer, and each device can have its own sync preferences with iTunes.

Under the Apps tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes, select the apps you want installed on your iPhone or deselect the apps you don't want installed on your iPhone followed by a sync. Your daughter does the same under the Apps tab for her iPhone sync preferences with iTunes. Under the Apps tab for your iPhone sync preferences, deselect Automatically Sync New Apps. This way when your daughter downloads a new app with iTunes, the app won't be selected automatically under the Apps tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes, and your daughter can do the same for any new apps that you download with iTunes that she doesn't want automatically installed on her iPhone when syncing.

The same applies under the Music tab, Movies tab, TV Shows tab, Podcasts tab, and Photos tab for your iPhone sync preferences and for your daughter's iPhone sync preferences with iTunes.

that sounds good for stopping the sharing of apps and such, but doesn't solve the problem of her having to use my password to update apps and download them.

Or does it?

Also, I am trying to enter my password for her to update apps and stuff. Problem is, it then asks for a second password, which is specific to her email account on iTunes. The only problem is that after she enters her password for her iTunes account, it wants to verify payment information. It shows her name but says she needs a credit card on file. ??

Any idea on how to make it recognize she can download updates to apps?

If you have a single iTunes account, all apps can be downloaded with iTunes on the shared computer along with any app updates followed by her selecting a new app under the Apps tab for her iPhone sync preferences followed by a sync, which will also install any app updates downloaded by iTunes for any of the apps on her iPhone with an update.

In order to have an iTunes account, a credit card must be on file for the account.

All 3rd party apps - paid and free apps include DRM protection which is tied to the iTunes account used to download the app. Co-mingling iTunes content that was downloaded with more than one iTunes account in the same iTunes library can cause additional work. Before connecting your iPhone to iTunes and syncing, you will need to be logged in to iTunes with your iTunes account. Before your daughter connects her iPhone to iTunes and syncing, she will need to be logged in to iTunes with her iTunes account.

Or you have have separate iTunes libraries under the same computer login account, but this will require you selecting your iTunes library when launching iTunes before connecting your iPhone to iTunes, and your daughter selecting her iTunes library when launching iTunes before her iPhone to iTunes.

Or you can set up a separate computer login account for your daughter where she can have her own iTunes library, syncing her contacts only with the Address Book, her calendar events only with iCal, and her Safari bookmarks only with Safari under her computer login account. The same for importing photos and video from her iPhone's Camera Roll with iPhoto - she will have her own iPhoto library as well. You can enable fast user switching which makes the process of switching between multiple computer login accounts on a Mac a fast and easy process. Your data and her data on the computer is kept separate. Like having two computers with one.

I appreciate your taking time to responded. Here's what I have done so far as I don't think I see an answer yet.

I have my account on iTunes on my computer. My daughter has an allowance set up under her email. When she hooked up her iPhone to my computer, I forget exactly the options offered, but think we chose to sync to my account. I might not be saying that correctly as I've only done it once so I don't have it memorized.

My thought in doing this was so she and I could share contacts, music, and apps.

I do understand your point about being able to select individual apps per phone.

The problem comes in with updating her apps. She has downloaded a ton of free apps, free games, and so forth. There are several updates available. When we try to update them, it first asks for my password. Understandable. Then it asks for her password. Ok.

Then it wants to verify payment information for her email. Not sure why it is doing that. It correctly shows her information and correctly shows she has no form of payment associated with her account on iTunes. Of course she doesn't, she's a minor and is given an allowance on iTunes.

She's downloaded free apps, not sure what payment verification has to do with downloading updates for free apps to her iPhone 4.

I personally would just like her to sync it to another computer and just start over, but she's all upset over having to reenter contacts and redownload all those cheesy free apps. I don't really blame her.

If we could solve the password issue so she could download updates, that would help. If we could sync her phone to another computer without wiping out her contacts, that would help.

Here's how I do this at my house We have 3 iphone 4s..mine, my wife and my teenage daughter...All teenage daughters are the same...downloading silly teenage apps. but hey..once in awhile even I like them..

I simply sync all 3 phones once a week by myself . I put in my credit information when requested when I update apps...I turn off and on apps for all 3 phones depending on whether I want them synced. I let all her silly apps download to my itunes library. I turn off contacts syncing and music syncing..basically all I sync is apps and then turn off the ones each phone doesn't want.

this works for us.

of course she can update her own apps on her phone if she wants but I find it easier to do it on the computer once a week.

More Like This

Retrieving data ...

This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.
Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums.
Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site. All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use.